Gender issues in education

Abstract

Social progress and sustainable development require gender equality and women's empowerment where education plays a critical role. Even as the crucial role of education in ensuring the development of gender equality is realized, there remains the need for in-depth analysis regarding the persistent challenges and obstacles that continue to discourage women's opportunities for education worldwide as well as a critical review of the effectiveness of current education systems at advancing gender equality. This paper reviews the literature and existing research works to provide an overview of different dimensions of gender inequality in educational contexts, assessing the global scenario of disparities in gender access to education, looking into the deterrents to women's education, and assessing how education contributes to engendering equality. Our findings indicate that everywhere in the world, socio-cultural norms, poverty, and violence against women keep girls and women out of education. Gendered division of labor, gendered career choices, and occupational segregation are important structuring factors in women's educational and career choices. Because of that, education systems now struggle to deal appropriately with inequalities between genders although progress has been made. It is indicated that specific intervention is still needed to break persistent barriers that women face in education. These results hint those factors such as economic factors, and systemic biases need to be fixed if there is to be gender parity in education.